Analysis
September 5, 2013
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
I read two articles recently regarding the impact of the devaluation of the India rupee against the U.S. dollar. One article (IHS Global Insight) discussed the metallurgical coal markets as the Indian steel mills have pulled back from the market as their costs spiral out of control. According to IHS Global the Indian currency lost 17 percent of its value in the South African coal markets during the month of August alone.
The Economic Times out of India reported JSW Steel (Jindal) plans on exporting 3 million metric tons (3.3 million net tons) during this fiscal year. The reason is tied to the drop in the value of the rupee against the dollar and how that has made Indian produced steel less expensive in the world market. Last year, JSW exported 1.9 million tons last year (2.09 million net tons). The article mentioned the U.S. as one of the target markets.
The Economic Times article also mentioned that JSW Steel is a bidder for the Stemcor iron ore assets in India. Bids are to be submitted by September 10th.
More trade cases were filed in the past 24 hours. This time it was for “dumping” rebar from Turkey and our NAFTA trade partner – Mexico. There were also countervailing duty case filed against Turkey. We put a press release from the AIIS about the cases on our existing website for anyone who is interested.
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